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<h1><a name="SECTION00101300000000000000000">
8.13 <tt class="module">xml.etree.ElementTree</tt> -- The ElementTree XML API</a>
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<a name="module-xml.etree.ElementTree"></a>

<p>

<span class="versionnote">New in version 2.5.</span>

<p>
The Element type is a flexible container object, designed to store
hierarchical data structures in memory. The type can be described as a
cross between a list and a dictionary.

<p>
Each element has a number of properties associated with it:

<p>

<ul>
<li>a tag which is a string identifying what kind of data
        this element represents (the element type, in other words).
</li>
<li>a number of attributes, stored in a Python dictionary.
</li>
<li>a text string.
</li>
<li>an optional tail string.
</li>
<li>a number of child elements, stored in a Python sequence
</li>
</ul>

<p>
To create an element instance, use the Element or SubElement factory
functions.

<p>
The <tt class="class">ElementTree</tt> class can be used to wrap an element
structure, and convert it from and to XML.

<p>
A C implementation of this API is available as
<tt class="module">xml.etree.cElementTree</tt>.

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<li><a href="elementtree-elementtree-objects.html">8.13.2 ElementTree Objects</a>
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<li><a href="elementtree-treebuilder-objects.html">8.13.4 TreeBuilder Objects</a>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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